The appeal process is a joke!!!

by jakesnake82 42 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Frank75

  Knowledge, compassion, and honesty are things ppl can't handle or except for some reason.

  Jake:

  This is a time for sober reflection. Jesus said that these things would be the Hallmarks of his true followers. Sure there are good people in the JW religion, but when it comes to Love, "knowledge, compassion and honesty" is it exponentially apparent in the JWs or obscure and hard to find. Are JW's known for being Just, Compassionate and Loving or rather for knocking on peoples doors Saturday morning?

  Trust your own eyes and heart in this assessment. Then look at the experiences of 100s and even 1000's of X-JW's on the Internet.

  Can you honestly describe the situation of your personal experience in the following words of Isaiah?

  (Isaiah 32:1-2) . . .Look! A king will reign for righteousness itself; and as respects princes, they will rule as princes for justice itself. 2 And each one must prove to be like a hiding place from the wind and a place of concealment from the rainstorm, like streams of water in a waterless country, like the shadow of a heavy crag in an exhausted land.

  You will find your answer in logic and honesty, even in truth.

  Frank75
• 

  sass_my_frass

  Hi, welcome and congratulations on your disfellowshipping (and commisserations....)

  It's funny though I've gotten dozens of phone calls from witnesses locally that are outraged about this whole thing and still want to be friends with me. So maybe I'll be ok. I think I pissed the elders off when I called all my friends and said goodbye to them. Unfortunatly my disfellowshipping seems to be stumbling a lot of ppl.

  You did good - showing a JW the injustice of your situation is one of the best ways through to them, and you deserve to. A few of them might change their minds, and I found that most people are only okay with me contacting them, they don't want to make the first move. Nearly three years later I've lost interest in keeping them in my life because of those kind of games.

  It hurts like hell, but not for long. It is important that you stay connected with people for a while - pick up some new interesting hobbies and things that will occupy your mind and distract you from that ugliness. I started a degree! You'll find soon that most people are actually pretty great, and you'll be just fine without the people you thought were your 'friends'.
• 

  anewme

  You said it right Jake, man made religions are like a club with some members elected to be leaders and some followers/slaves and they all have the cliques and sorrows and play the power games that all organizations have.
  
  True faith is your own relationship with the creator and to invite others into that relationship is to invite trouble.
  
  
  Really sorry you are so disturbed by this new revelation kiddo. Just chill and enjoy being out of that very weird group.
  
  Stick around here and we will teach you how to enjoy each day of living and life to the full!
  You dont need their approval anymore.
  You only need your God given conscience and your own heart's approval.
  
  Anewme
• 

  jefferywhat

  Dear Mr Frank 75,
  
  Firstly, I was not criticizing jakesnake at all, my comment was really a follow of to a comment by JK666, that there is a follow up process and if you want to stay a witness or avoid the DF'ing, there is a remedy, I found that out, pursued it and was successful.
  
  Dont presume to brand me as naive, you dont know me and if you havent got the time to get to know me, dont judge or assume, thats what old lazy men do and I assume that description does not fit you!
  
  It took me 9 months to "win" my little battle and cost me dearly in both my reputation( R&F dont like to see you questioning the BOE) and my wife (same attitude), so would say its possible but a difficult road.
  
  However, if you dont want to be a "victim" take control, this board is full of people who have done just that.
  
  Jakesnake, all Im saying is "Illegitimi non carborundum", this is our family moto and I got alot of support from my family for standing up for my beliefs, you will get that support here, PM if you want some advice on how to beat the system.
  
  For some great reading go to http://www.watchtowerletters.com/our_letter_elders.html.
  
  This has to be the best letter I have ever read, mine was good, this is inspired!!!( Joke)
  
  Jeff
• 

  tula

  Did you ever ask them.....WHO gets to decide when Jehovah has forgiven you?

  BTW, isn't it blasphemous to suppose that any human could read the mind of God in order to know what God thinks about someone else?
• 

  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  "I'm angry, confused and I'm tired of fighting. It seems like membership in a religion is more like a club with rules that go against conventional wisdom and the very priciples of the scriptures themselves. Knowledge, compassion, and honesty are things ppl can't handle or except for some reason. "

  Jake, It's not unusual to feel that way. When you're truly "in", everything seems so good and right, wonderful, perfect. When you look at everything from the outside, it is entirely different. You have very quickly gone from "in" to "out". It will be a very rough ride. But you have something that most don't have when this happens... JWD right here. Before you start thinking you can appeal again and everything can go back to the way it was, sorry, that won't happen. Either the DF will be upheld, or if it is overturned you will still be 'publicly reproved'. In either case, from the sound of your JC, they will make it as slow, painful, and embarrasing as possible for you to make any progress in returning. Please keep your senses through all of this. And please keep us posted. Billy
• 

  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  Sorry, I just went back and reread your first post. I didn't mean to leave out the important part about your girlfriend. How is she doing through all of this?
• 

  tijkmo

  wow this has brought back a whole lot of sad - and angry - memories

  i can sooo feel you bro..this whole sham of df-ing is beyond a joke.

  a previous poster made a good point about believing that df-ing is a godly decision cos it so aint..and that is difficult to accept when someone truly believes like i did and you seem to.

  i thought that, as taught - and as i had explained to a number of people - df-ing decisions were made in heaven and passed down. it is so disillusioning to find out that they aren't. and yet this is why the gb refuse to change their stance. to change now is to admit they have been wrong all along.

  the get-out clause is of course that the elders are imperfect and make mistakes and are not able to read hearts..this reasoning makes me so angry because it is never the elders on your judicial committee that will admit to that..to them they are doing jahs bidding..but the ones who remind you that elders are imperfect do not take a stance against the decision..they will still shun you and they do this despite knowing that you have been treated appallingly. and if they do take a stance against the elders then they will suffer the same consequences i.e threaten to be df-ed.

  sadly (if you seek reinstatement) you have further blotted your copybook by telling the elders on your committee that they are ungodly and unforgiving..they are the ones that will reinstate you - the appeal committee has nothing more to do with you and even if you move congs your new elders will have to get permission from the original jc before they can reinstate you.

  man you have a long bewildering disillusioning road ahead of you..you are me 5 years ago..(and plenty of other genuinely repentant folk who were still df-ed by so-called princes who think they knew better than jah)

  this more than anything convinces me that jws are not backed by jah - and one of the reasons i still hold on to the idea that there is a god at all is the hope that he will someday demand an answer from these idiot elders who have behaved so inhumanely.
• 

  tijkmo

  The process actually works if you want it to.

  i'm sorry jeffreywhat but i wanted it to work and it didn't..i'm not a old lazy man and i truly believed in the system.

  if you were not 'technically' df-ed then i'm sorry but it isn't the same thing because until you are 'actually' df-ed then you still have some support and the means to 'appeal' whatever is being said.

  once i was df-ed i had no rights at all..people could say whatever they liked - and they did - and you may not even hear about them and even if you do then you can do nothing.

  and ...why would it be necessary to fight for 9 months a decison that supposedly had already been made in heaven..has jahs chariot broken down..are his angels who came to help daniel before he had even finished praying now too old for speedy responses.

  knowing what i do now i accept that there are ways to work the system but for most imperfect wrongdoers that is not their thinking on the matter..i recently had a brother come to me because he was threatened with df-ing. i said to him i don't care if you are repentant but he told me he wasn't - just didn't want df-ed...so i told him to lie lie lie .. and cry cry cry ..he did ...and he didnt get df-ed.

  what a joke.
• 

  jefferywhat

  Hi tijkmo,
  
  I hate to hear of DFing stories, I hate the whole idea of it.
  
  When I say the process works, I am not referring to the fantasy story of the elders will work out Jehovahs thoughts, that is the biggest load of BS I have ever heard, do any ex elders on here ever really believe this?
  
  My dad is not a witness and is a lawyer and I spent alot of time talking to him about the whole thing.
  
  I believe if you stick to basics, i.e, you feel like you were prejudged, you really are repentant, your relationship with Jah is fine, that you have confessed to him, they do not have a scriptural leg to stand on, unless of course its a major scandal, that makes it harder.
  
  My brother is baptized and not living a christian life at all, he doesn't go to meetings but associates with witnesses.
  
  He , for some strange reason felt the need to confess and asked two elders around.....they came around heard what he had to say and believe me it was alot, at the end the PO of the local cong just listened and when they stood up to leave, he gave my brother a big bear hug and told him how much he cared about him and thanked him for his honesty, said a prayer and left, they still associate with him.
  
  This little story makes me realise, its up to the local body what happens, and if your on the outer, its harder to battle, but you can go above them, they hate it, my PO had spit coming out of his mouth in anger, but you can do it if you think its valid, and who knows , the CO might have flagged a problem and your taking it further is just what they want to get rid of a fool.
  
  I hope when its my generation running the show that this mediaeval practice is abandoned, for everyones sake.